Thursday, April 26, 2012

I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this one; election season political freakouts are silly and soul-warping if you pay too much attention to them - but there is today a contingent of the U.S. political pundit class freaking out over Obama going on Jimmy Fallon's show last night, saying things along the lines of "It brings down the dignity of the office!"

"I think ideas are what you want to get rid of. I don't really like songs with ideas. They tend to become slogans," he told the Guardian's Dorian Lynskey earlier this year. "They tend to be on the right side of things: ecology or vegetarianism or antiwar. All these are wonderful ideas but I like to work on a song until those slogans, as wonderful as they are and as wholesome as the ideas they promote are, dissolve into deeper convictions of the heart."

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Rep. Pat Tiberi (R-OH), in response to a question on why he wants to lower taxes on the wealthy, and raise taxes on the poor:

TIBERI: Well, it’s hard to lower taxes on people who don’t pay taxes. [Note: This is a repeat of the "half of Americans don't even pay taxes" lie.] As you know, you have the Earned Income Tax Credit, so you have folks who are actually getting a check and not paying income tax…If you don’t have skin in the game, even if it’s ten bucks a quarter, I think it changes the debate on what the role of the federal government is and what the role of state government is.

You almost have to step back and catch your breath before you absorb what Tiberi is saying here: The poor (or even discussion of the poor, apparently) don't belong in the American conversation about tax policy - because the actual skin, the actual humanity, the actual status of these poor people as fellow Americans and human beings - doesn't count - only the fact that they're poor and can't pay taxes [which, again, is a lie]. So screw them. Let's wring them more thoroughly for every last cent in their pockets—and let's lower taxes on the wealthy in the meantime. Because the wealthy have "skin" in the game. The kind of skin that counts.

Saturday, April 14, 2012

This is very cool. You have to drag and drop body parts into the right spot in the human body figure. (I like "Organs Game" the best.) And you have to have the parts orientated the correct way. I've never been educated on organ placement so quickly. (We all think we know where the pancreas and liver and so forth are - but do we really?)

The second bill requires a woman seeking an abortion to undergo an exam and consult with a doctor alone, away from her friends and family. The doctor must determine whether someone is pressuring the woman into the procedure. Doctors who break the law could be charged with a felony.

Monday, April 9, 2012

On this large religious holiday (well, in the U.S. and other parts; it's Monday afternoon here), I have one thought to offer: Sometimes it seems like there are an awful a lot of people who believe their most important duty—as true and ardent followers of the teachings of Jesus—is to figure out that whole camel and needle trick.